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Richard Whitehead triumphs at last year’s Sainsbury’s London Anniversary Games (Picture: Reuters)

As Splash! enters its fourth episode, Metro takes a look at one of this week’s competitors, Paralympian Richard Whitehead.

Whitehead is a congenital double amputee having been born without the lower halves of his legs. He had both his legs amputated above the knee and competes on blades in both track sprint events in the T42 Paralympic category and also marathons.

His first global medal came at the 2011 IPC world championships in Christchurch, New Zealand, where he won 200m gold, and he followed that up with a gold and a bronze at the following year’s IPC European Championships.

However, he is best known for his performance in winning Paralympic gold at the London 2012 Games over 200m in a time of 24.38 seconds, beating Shaquille Vance of the USA into silver-medal position.

Richard Whitehead prepares for his trek around Britain (Picture: PA)

Now 37, Whitehead made a successful defence of his world 200m crown in Lyon last year and also took part in the 2013 London Marathon.

He is taking to the diving board to compete against former rugby union player Austin Healey, comedienne Jenny Eclair, TV presenter Pollyanna Woodward and Saturdays singer Una Foden in episode four of the show’s second series under the watchful eye of Olympic diving medallist Tom Daley.